Canadian director Paul Haggis is currently working on his new movie, Third Person. Reporter Marie-Joelle Parent met up with him in New York where he lives. (Marie-Joelle Parent/QMI AGENCY)

NEW YORK - Here's another reason why New York is my favourite city: You never know who you are going to end up seated next to at dinner.

This was exactly how I met writer/director Paul Haggis while at a SoHo cafe.

Both of us sat at the same table, with our MacBook Pros and our cappuccinos. I worked on an article, and he worked on his next project as we started to chat.

"Do you always write in cafes?" I asked.

"I wrote Casino Royale in a bar in Italy," said Haggis, from London, Ont. "Each time it's different, but I like to hear life around me, I like to hide away in public."

Haggis, 58, won an Oscar in 2006 for Crash, which he wrote and directed. He also wrote Million Dollar Baby, which won the Oscar the year before. He's been working on a new film for the last two years.

"I've rewritten the plot more than 50 times," he said, somewhat exasperated. "It's going to be called Third Person and will be about three different love stories in three different cities: New York, Paris and Rome."

The movie, he said, is based in part on his life as a recent divorcee.

"It's my therapy," he said. "I'm trying to figure out my life through my work!"

He has spent the past few months in Europe, looking for financing for that project.

"Making a movie is impossible," he said.

It was hard to imagine that I was talking to a former high-ranking member of the Church of Scientology. A dedicated member for 34 years, he finally left the church in 2009. Later, he wrote a 2,500-word article in The New Yorker about the shady practices of the church that he called a "cult."

It was a risky move to attack an institution that is so connected to Hollywood. Two years later, is he still happy to have made the move?

"For sure," said Haggis, with a slight smile.

But is it harder for him to make movies now?

"It's not so bad," he said. "Yes, there are a few actors and other people that won't work with me anymore, but Hollywood is big."

The father of four divides his time between New York and Los Angeles. He comes home to Canada once in a while to see his dad. Haggis and his ex-wife live close to each other in SoHo and share custody of their 13-year-old son.

Haggis recently came back from Haiti, a country he has taken to heart since a meeting four years ago with Rick Frechette, a doctor and priest that devotes his life to the children in the shanty towns. Haggis has been to the country several times since last January's devastating earthquake.

Haggis, through the organization Artists for Peace and Justice, has helped raise millions of dollars for Haiti.

"In October we just opened the first free high school in Haiti for 3,000 kids," he said.

Nearly two years following the tragedy, Haggis said things aren't moving fast enough.

"There are 12,000 (international aid workers) in Haiti and 10,000 are mandated to take care of education, and nobody had built a school before we got there. The money is sitting in banks."

Haggis, who produced the video We are the World: 25 for Haiti, now plans to build two schools for the arts in Jacmel and Cite Soleil, with the help of other artists.

"But for that we still need millions," he said.

It's a well-known fact that in New York, cafes often serve as offices for business people, journalists, bloggers and others escaping overpopulated apartments. First and foremost, it's a great place to meet interesting people. Some of them famous.

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